Love Is In The Air
Episode 12 of Bulgasal: Immortal Souls starts with Sang-Un and Hwal trying to find Eul-Tae, determined to stop him. We know how this ends; both Hwal and Eul-Tae will need to die together. However, Hwal is weakened from his earlier fight though and as he sits down to rest, Sang-Un urges him not to kill the evil other, suggesting he lock Eul-Tae up in the well forever. ..
News of Hwal’s fate – and how both Bulgasals need to die together – is relayed back to Si-Ho, who in turn tells the dysfunctional family. When Do-Yun learns what’s happened, he’s certainly surprised, but the scene cuts before we can properly see his reaction.
We flashback back to the year 1000 AD and see a brief flashback play out. Hwal is bleeding, weakened and lost. Eul-Tae is there and asks what he can do to help. Quick as a flash, Hwal, under the guise of the Bulgasal’s curse, grabs Eul-Tae’s chest and leaves a horrid Dark Hole in its wake.
The drama between Eul-Tae and Hwal has taken a backseat for the past few episodes, with Sang-Un and Hwal growing closer together. There are a few scenes where Hwal cooks for Sang-Un and the former confused by Sang-Un’s confession, given he’s never had anyone care so deeply for him before – not even his own wife.
Sang-Un suggests sacrificing herself in order to save Hwal’s life. She decides to make him kill her, reverting back to their old selves to try and make things right. And that would, of course, include Bulgasal going back inside Sang-Un. ..
Hwal refuses to let Sang-Un die, but is unsure how to live as a human anymore. He remains determined to press ahead with the original plan, but has grown affectionate toward Sang-Un and doesn’t want her to die.
Lee Hye-Suk begs Hwal not to kill her. There’s a touching moment where Hwal holds out his hand and brushes her hair affectionately, as Lee changes to a child, reflecting how long Hwal has known her. ..
Si-Ho uses her foreshadowing technique to jump back through time and see what happened to Hwa-Yeon. Si-Ho’s ability to foreshadow allows her to piece together what happened in the past, which helps her understand why Hwa-Yeon is acting the way she is. ..
However, Hye-Seok is there and she somehow manages to reach out to Si-Ho, who tells her not to look at past lives and return. This surprising turn of events has significant weight as it could mean the end of the prophecy surrounding everyone dying after retrieving their memories. ..
Si-Ho is concerned about her wound, and her ability to continue working.
Si-Ho enters the bedroom and finds Hye-Suk acting out of sorts. She scrubs the floor constantly, mumbling, while her eyes have the same, strange glassy-veil hanging over them. It’s certainly unnerving but she snaps out of it, unaware of what she’s been doing when Si-Ho shows up.
Meanwhile, Hwal heads to Eul-Tae’s where he finds the other Bulgasal’s pin-board, blood-soaked and full of clippings and pictures, including that of Sang-Un and Sang-Yeon.
Hwal demands to know where Eul-Tae is, and it turns out he’s still at the mountains, having suffered from a lot of blood loss.
Eul-Tae tells Hwal that he and his friends, the three of them, were looking for a place to sleep and ended up in the woods. They were looking for a place to hide from the military, but they didn’t find it. Eul-Tae says that he and his friends were just trying to be friendly and help out, but they didn’t mean to hurt anyone.
Eul-Tae refuses to say anything until Hwal kills Sang-Un and brings her to him. Hwal refuses to do so, which apparently is the same choice he made 1000 years prior. Eul-tae promises that she’ll ruin him and his deception (at least according to Eul-Tae anyway) will be his undoing. He’s going to kill everyone Hwal holds deal and gain his revenge.
Eul-Tae interrupts the two men to tell them that he has a plan to kill Sang-Un while she’s on her own. He tells them that he will use the security guard they saw earlier to do so. Hwal races back to his car in order to prevent Sang-Un from being killed.
Sang-Un, a victim of a brutal attack, sits with her knees drawn up to her chest as the security guard who failed to kill her earlier regains his strength. Eul-Tae, sensing an opportunity, takes advantage and drains the security guard’s blood. It’s hinted that he takes a lot of it - enough that his mouth is stained red - but we don’t see this happen (thankfully!). ..
With Eul-Tae now back to his old tricks, Hwal takes Sang-Un and looks after her. He wipes blood from her face and as romantic music plays, it looks like we’re gearing up for a lovey angle to all of this. It seemed foreshadowed from very early on that the show would go this route and now we get our confirmation.
Sang-Un and Hwal eventually help each other clean the blood off of each other. While in the bathroom together, Sang-Un quizzes Hwal about what Eul-Tae prophesied but Hwal shrugs it off, claiming it’s all nonsense. Sang-Un decides not to read too much into this, pointing out that Hwal has been helping her all this time.
A big revelation is made when Sang-Un looks in the mirror. She realizes the scar on her chest is in the same place as Sang-Yeon’s. ..
As she touches the weapon, she is transported back in time to Hwa-Yeon where she notices Bulgasal killing. However, it’s not Eul-Tae’s Bulgasal but actually Hwal. ..
When Hwal rushes into the bathroom to see her, Sang-Un grabs a pair of scissors and stabs him in the chest. “Who are you?” She demands. ..
The Episode Review
The Bulgasal that slaughtered the village was actually Hwal after all. At least, that’s the way it looks anyway. It could be another trick but if not then this throws a big spanner in the works of the romance between Hwal and Sang-Un. It could also explain why the scriptwriters have pushed this so heavily.
The show has been building up to this moment for so long and I’m starting to feel like it’s going to be too much.
This episode feels like it’s missing something, like they’re not sure what they want to do with Eul-Tae and are just going through the motions. It feels like they could use this time to really focus on Eul-Tae and figure out what his role is going to be in the future.
The tone of the show has shifted in recent episodes, with more romance appearing in place of the gritty fantasy we saw early on. Whether this is a reaction to the feelings that this season feels like Goblin and now embracing that more romantic side, is unknown. ..
What will happen with the characters now that the show has come to an end? Will the finale live up to all of our expectations? We’ll just have to wait and see. ..
